Avoiding clichéd genre names, Clockwork Ambrosia is a retro-style sidescroller with an interface that fills your mouth but suggests nothing beyond the fact that you will be playing something with a steampunk vibe.
The game starts strong, a dragon is chasing you, a very agile and mysterious sniper saves you, there’s flying, shooting, and falling through explosions. In the first few minutes of the game, it’s clear what you’re in for: you played this 40 years ago, and every now and then again, if you’re as old as I am. If you’re not, insert your age and go from there - some of the first video games with humanoid avatars share the same controls and general level design with Clockwork Ambrosia.
Left, right, crouch, jump. Shooting, special ammo, power-ups. Here you also have an inventory and weapon and armor modification. Everything you put on your character is visible, which is nice touch. Personally, after a few hours of playing, I get the impression that a lot of effort was put into the details and mechanics of shooting with different weapons and classic puzzles for games of this type.
There is also my main complaint - the game is somewhere in the gray area between hyper-playable metroidvanias, but in terms of gameplay and control response time, there’s no comparison to, say, Dead Cells. The story and exploration push you forward (up, down, back) but there’s no instant hook and vibe like, say, Hollow Knight. Whatever you compare Clockwork Ambrosia to, that something (that something) does... it better. And it doesn’t offer a unique angle / selling point so I can say, oh but this is unique.
I would be perfectly fine if I hadn’t played it, and I’m okay with the fact that I did. The game is just okay, and when it pops up in some future mystery bundle, you might give it a chance because you paid for it, after all.
A copy of the PC version of the game for review purposes was provided by the development studio Realmsoft and the publisher OI Games
